Jan Phibbons, a second lieutenant in the Tucson company of the Arizona Rangers, directs a driver past roadblocks in place for the Festival of the Arts in Tubac.

kelly presnell / arizona daily star

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Ask most folks about the Arizona Rangers and they'll say either "Don't you mean the Texas Rangers?" or "Aren't those the guys who show us where to park our cars?"

Well, no and yes. Sort of.

Organized in 1901, the original company of 26 men known as the Territorial Arizona Rangers had to rope, ride and read. Oh, yeah. And rid. As in rid the land of all the outlaws seemingly plaguing Arizona at the turn of the 20th century.

The idea being Arizona then would become such a haven of tranquility that it would soon be admitted into the Union.

Lawmen, soldiers, ranchers and cowboys were among the first recruits.

"They were modeled after the Texas Rangers," says Maj. Anita Korhonen, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Rangers and a ranger herself since 1994.

Women, by the way, have been rangers since the 1980s, she adds.

Clearly, much has changed. But for the time being, let's go back in time 100 years or so, to when the rangers were setting up headquarters in the new border town of Douglas.

"By 1902 saloons, bordellos and gambling houses flourished in the dusty boomtown, and hoodlums from two countries gravitated to Douglas," writes Bill O'Neal, author of "Captain Harry Wheeler, Arizona Lawman."

Wheeler turned out to be the Arizona Rangers' last captain. A ranger since 1903, Wheeler helped curb rustling in the Sulphur Springs Valley, fatally shot a holdup man in Tucson and helped rid Douglas of a criminal gang, writes O'Neal.

After he was promoted to captain in 1907, Wheeler promptly relocated headquarters to Naco, Ariz., and put out a set of rules that cautioned rangers not to "congregate in saloons, nor in any bawdy house . . . ," he writes.

"Everybody knew him for his honesty. He held pretty high standards for himself. He always took responsibility," says Wheeler's granddaughter, Pam Hamlett, who lives in Tucson.

Despite the rangers' success, or perhaps because of it, the Territorial Legislature abolished the company in 1909 — three years before statehood.

"It was politics," says Korhonen.

The rangers also are credited — or criticized, depending upon your point of view — for helping put down miner unrest in the Clifton-Morenci area in 1903, as well as in Cananea, Sonora, in 1906 — the latter at the invitation of Sonora's governor.

Ironically, Wheeler, who became sheriff of Cochise County soon after statehood, would also oversee the roundup of more than 1,000 men.

Know as the Bisbee deportation of 1917, the men — some, but not all, striking miners — were loaded into boxcars and sent to New Mexico.

Wheeler would later say that he felt the deportation was the only way to avoid armed conflict among thousands of men.

"That was a different era back then. I don't think my grandfather had a choice," says Hamlett.

In 1957, a few original rangers sparked the beginnings of today's Arizona Rangers.

Among its goals: assist law enforcement, support youth groups and offer community support.

Dressed in Western garb, Arizona's 14 companies of rangers, including Tucson's 40-member company, work as volunteers. But they also carry guns, help secure crime scenes and can use force to subdue the unruly.

Training, intensive and ongoing, encompasses everything from weaponry and target practice to handcuffing techniques and courses in Arizona law.

Many of the rangers have backgrounds in law enforcement. For example, Dave Bruce taught criminal justice at Pima Community College for 32 years, and Kenn Barrett spent three decades in law enforcement in Los Angeles before moving to Tombstone and briefly becoming its marshal in the spring of 2005.

"We all go through the same training as rangers, even though I was a cop for 35 years," says Barrett. Until then, he could not carry a gun, handcuffs or baton as a ranger.

Despite the heavy-duty training, rangers are often involved in more prosaic activities, such as directing traffic at community events, helping with DUI stops and providing security for everything from festivals to school-sponsored post-graduation events.

Local law enforcement sings their praises.

"If they weren't there, our resources would be stretched pretty thin," says Sgt. Chris Warren, with the Marana Police Department.

"I can't say enough good things about them," adds South Tucson Police Chief Sharon Hayes-Martinez, who's worked side-by-side with the rangers at several norteño festivals.

Though most of the work is what Bruce calls the "warm fuzzies" of interacting with the public, being a ranger can still be dangerous.

While in uniform and making a bank deposit for the Knights of Columbus in Sierra Vista in 1992, ranger John Thomas confronted a robber and was shot and killed.

Apparently, some of the same dangers facing the rangers of 1901 still exist today.